Bombay High Court Allowed Students to Wear Hijab? No, Claim is Misleading

We found no recent reports on any petition filed in the Bombay High Court related to the ongoing matter.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

After the Karnataka High Court upheld the ban on Muslim girls wearing a hijab with the uniform in schools and colleges, a message stating that the Bombay High Court has passed an order allowing students to wear the same has been doing the rounds.

The message insinuates that the verdict by the Bombay High Court was passed at a time when the Karnataka High Court dismissed the petitions filed by Muslim students stating that wearing the garment was not part of 'Essential Religious Practice'.

However, we found that no such order has been passed by the Bombay High Court recently.

We found news reports from 2018, which make a mention of a petition filed in the Bombay High Court by a student of homeopathy accusing her college of not allowing her to wear a hijab.

CLAIM

The message, which is originally in Hindi, reads, "बॉम्बे हाईकोर्ट ने कर्नाटक हाईकोर्ट को मुँहतोड़ जवाब दिया". [Translation: Bombay High Court gave a befitting reply to the Karnataka High Court.]

It further mentions that while passing the order, Bombay High Court said that no management has the right to stop any student from wearing a burqa or a hijab, if they wish to.

An archived version of the post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Archived versions of several other similar posts can be seen here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We conducted a simple keyword search on Google and came across a report published on The Indian Express titled, "Not allowed to wear hijab’, Mumbai student takes college to court".

The report was from May 2018, which noted that a student, Fakeha Badam, of Sai Homeopathic Medical College in Thane had approached the Bombay High Court, accusing her college of not letting her wear a hijab and also barring her from sitting for the examination citing low attendance as a reason.

On 12 March, the court recorded the statement of the college and the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS).

The college had told the court that the girl would be allowed to sit for the repeat classes and also take the first-year examination, which were to be held in the summer months of 2018.

However, the report added that Badami in her petition claimed that she was not allowed to sit for the exam due to poor attendance, which was because of not being allowed to attend the classes as she wears a hijab.

On 25 May, the high court had said that it cannot allow her to appear for her first year repeat examinations as she was held ineligible by the college because of poor attendance.

Further, we found no recent reports on any petition filed in the Bombay High Court related to the ongoing matter.

WHY THE COMPARISON WITH KARNATAKA HIGH COURT?

The claim comes after the Karnataka High Court had dismissed the pleas challenging the ban on wearing of hijab in educational institutes.

Dismissing the writ petitions filed by Muslim girl students seeking permission to wear hijabs in colleges, the court said that the garment was not part of 'Essential Religious Practice' and that no compelling case was made out for invalidating the government order against it.

The order has been challenged in the Supreme Court by Niba Naaz, one of the students who had filed the petition.

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